


I Was Born in a Thunderstorm

by wearetheluckyones



Series: Crime AUs [3]
Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, Little Mix (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Criminals, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, And a Weird Dream About Rotting Flesh, Angst, Guns, Gunshot Wounds, Like Lots, Long One Shot, M/M, Major Trigger Warning for Rape Flashbacks, Minor Character Death, Minor Liam Payne/Harry Styles, Mpreg, Niall has a Potty Mouth, Panic Attacks, Slow Burn, Smut, ish, long fic, lots of swearing, though not explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 00:01:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14460675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearetheluckyones/pseuds/wearetheluckyones
Summary: Sometimes, the lesser of two evils is the bigger (metaphorically speaking), meaner drug kingpin than the one you’ve been sleeping with for the past six years.





	I Was Born in a Thunderstorm

**Author's Note:**

> This came out of my new favourite crime novel series, The Archer and Bennett Series, by Candice Fox. 
> 
> Title from Alive by Sia.
> 
> This is part of a series, the second of which is currently being written (as of 05/05/2018) and should be out soon.

Niall knows where to go. He’s always known where to go.

Everyone knows Tierney and Hades keep tabs on each other – surveillance, cameras, inside men – most also know the unspoken rule the two men have been adhering to since the war started – homes are off limits. Niall uses this to his advantage.

He doesn’t dare visit Hades at his cover business. Tierney’s got a girl on the desk who’s fucking his brother, and Tierney can’t know where Niall’s gone.

So he goes to Hades’ house. He knows where it is, because Tierney knows where it is, and he knows where the cameras and parked cars are, because Tierney knows.

He’s good at slipping about unnoticed. He's small, and fast. He knows how to use the light, or lack thereof, to hide himself. 

He knows how to pick a lock, even locks as complicated as the locks on Hades’ back door; Tierney taught him, years ago when they first met and Niall lusted after the danger Tierney brought him.

The house is silent. He knows from Tierney’s surveillance that three men live here; Hades, Hades’ second in command Cerberus, and Cerberus’ lover, Apollo. He doesn’t know any of their real names, because Tierney doesn’t know, but he does know that all Hades’ higher ups take their codenames from Greek mythology.

Tierney had never been able to get a man inside the house, so there’s no surveillance, and Niall mostly wanders about blind, quiet as a church mouse, tiptoeing through the hallways in the darkness.

He peaks around doors, but doesn’t dare open any that are closed, and thinks about waiting in the kitchen – he’s hungry, and can’t think about anything else – but he doesn’t get the chance to make a decision, because no matter how quiet Niall had thought he was being, someone had heard him.

There’s a hand around Niall’s throat from the back, making it hard to breathe, and a warm, damp breath on his neck, the barrel of a gun poking into his rib cage. The body against him is on the slighter side, and he’s reminded of the photos of Hades Tierney had shown him, short and stocky. 

There’s a gun tucked into the back of Niall’s pants, but he’s not sure he could reach it, even if he did want to ruin his chances at buying Hades’ protection

“Who are you?” The voice says.

“Niall.” Niall replies simply.

“What are you doing in my house, Niall?” The voice asks, the gun digging in harder. “Has Tierney sent you?”

“No.” Niall says. He realises the plan he’d made had never included what he’d say when he got into the house. “I need protection from him. I’ve got money.”

After a moment’s pause, the arm around Niall’s neck loosens, and the man behind him steps away, giving Niall the opportunity to turn and face him. He can’t see much, not in the darkness of the hallway, but he can see the gun, still pointed at him, and fuzzy outline of a body.

“Why?” Hades asks, because Niall’s sure it’s Hades now. “What have you done to warrant the need for protection?”

“I took something from him.” Niall’s eyes are adjusting to the darkness, and the man in front of him starts to become clearer; messy hair, shirtless and covered in tattoos.

“What?”

“Me.”

While still pointing the gun at Niall, Hades feels around the wall for what Niall suspects is the light switch, swearing colourfully when they flicker on. “Fucking bollocks.”

Niall takes a better look at the man in front of him in the light, the tan of his skin, the shape of his thighs, the ink across his skin. Niall never really realised how pretty the drug lord was.

Hades bangs on the wall to his left, and two men come out of a door in seconds, both holding guns, not a stitch of clothing between them. 

One’s tall and pretty, Cerberus, and the other is tall, though not as tall as Cerberus, and _ripped_ , Apollo. Niall doesn’t feel all that bad about taking a peak at their soft cocks, even when Apollo takes a hand from his gun to cover himself, blushing bright pink.

“Fuck, what’s he doing here?” Cerberus mutters to Hades.

“He wants _protection_.”

There are three guns pointing at Niall, and he realises he isn’t all that scared. It’s death here or death with Tierney, and while he’d prefer to live, he’s not expecting much.

“ _Why_?” Cerberus mutters.

“You got anything to eat? I’m starved.” They stare at him in confusion, faces almost comical, and it makes Niall laugh.

The hair at the back of Niall’s neck stands on end, and he turns back to look at Hades, sees the tension in his shoulders, like a lion ready to pounce.

“I’d really rather you didn’t do that.” Niall says. “I mean you knock me out now, who knows what could happen. I might miscarriage or summat.”

The shock and confusion is back in full force, and Niall lets out a delighted laugh, before he says, “So, about that food, yeah?”

He slides past them while they’re distracted, back towards the front end of the house (he thinks it’s the front end), and eventually finds himself in the kitchen, pulling open the fridge door.

There’s containers of what looks like left over pad Thai and fried rice, and Niall takes them both out. He knows the three men have followed him even before he turns around, and he says, “Where’s a fork, then?”

The containers get taken away from him and he pouts.

“No food until you talk.”

“Mate, I walked all the way here from _Tierney’s_ , I’m pregnant, and I’ve got a gun tucked into me pants, gimme the fucking food.”

Hades hands him the food back and Cerberus gets him a fork from the sink.

“Ta.”

He doesn’t bother heating it, he’s too hungry, just pulls the lids off and tucks in happily.

They watch him, masks back on, emotions stripped from their faces. Niall makes faces at them while he eats, trying to make them crack, like a tourist would with one of the royal guards at Buckingham.

Hades touches Cerberus’ arm to get his attention, and says, very quietly, “Get the first aid kit.”

“Is it bad?” Niall says, suddenly remembering the cut on his cheek from the slap Tierney had given him before he’d left. When he touches his fingers to it, it stings, but the blood’s all dried up.

No one says anything, and Cerberus goes to the sink, opening the cupboard doors underneath and pulling out a first aid box.

Niall finishes the pad Thai first, and the reaches for the gun in his jeans. He almost gets shot for his effort to give up his weapon first, but he doesn’t, luckily, placing it on the counter with a soft clatter.

“Should’ve brought the holster.” He says to himself, stepping between his gun and the three men, so they won’t try to nick it.

Hades squints at Niall as he starts in on the fried rice, and says, “Right, you’ve eaten, c’mon then, talk your piece.”

Niall squints right back at Hades, then snorts. “You look funny like that, like a confused kid or summat.” He laughs. “Anyways, I got this idea after he gave me this,” Niall says, gesturing to his cut. “I thought, ‘fuck this man, I’m out’, then I thought, ‘where the fuck do I go?’ so I sneak out of the mansion, start walking, don’t know where the fuck I was going, think I was about to swim back to Ireland, and then I thought, ‘where’s the last place he’ll look for me?’ and if he ever did find out where I was, ‘who’s scary enough to make him fuck off’?” Then, in his best presenter voice, he says, “Hades, Lord of the Underworld.”

They don’t react. They look a bit like statues, except they’re still breathing.

“Lo-Hades.” Cerberus says, turned to his boss. Niall doesn’t miss the almost-slip.

Hades seems to understand his second’s thoughts before he has to speak them, and he turns to Niall and says, “Cerberus will clean your cut.”

“As long as it doesn’t stop me from eating the rest of this, he could dance the cha-cha for all I care.”

Cerberus approaches Niall slowly, putting the first aid kit down on the counter and clicking the latch, pulling the top open.

“Hades…” He hears Apollo say across the room. Niall doesn’t need to look at him to know he’s asking permission to put some clothes on. He’s obviously not as comfortable with his nudity as Cerberus is.

“Yeah, go.”

Niall watches Cerberus take a pad of gauze out of a packet and pours some antiseptic solution on it, before approaching Niall carefully. Niall watches him with a raised eyebrow, lifting a forkful of rice into his mouth.

The antiseptic solution stings when it touches Niall’s skin, but Cerberus is gentle, cleaning his cut carefully, eyebrows wrinkled in concentration. “You’re certainly gentler than most gang bangers I’ve met.”

Cerberus doesn’t reply, and Niall shrugs and keeps eating.

“It doesn’t need stitches.” The man in front of Niall says after he’s finished cleaning it, and has stuck a plaster over it.

Cerberus cleans up the gauze and puts the first aid kit back in the cupboard under the sink, just as Apollo returns, dressed in joggers and a loose t-shirt.

There aren’t any guns pointed at Niall now, and he knows it’s because they don’t think he’s a threat anymore. He’s partly insulted, but mostly glad.

“What do you want me to do, then?” Hades says, arms crossed over his chest, gun still in his hand.

Niall thinks about it for a moment. He really needs to plan better the next time he breaks into a drug lord’s house. “Need some protection and somewhere to stay until Tierney gets bored and moves onto the next piece of arse with a blonde dye job, then I can fuck back off to Ireland. Shouldn’t take him too long, I think he was fucking this skank behind me back.”

“What’s in it for us? Tierney’s a bad guy to fuck with, and no money will ever be enough to take his whore and his child from him.” Hades arches an eyebrow. “Unless it’s not his, and that’s why you’ve run?”

“Rude.” Niall says, making a face at Hades. “It’s his, and he doesn’t know. He might try looking for me, but not for too long, I should think.”

Cerberus returns, and he and Hades have a conversation with their eyes, before Cerberus says, “How do we know you aren’t a plant?”

Niall rolls his eyes and pokes out his tongue. “Let me make it plain and simple for ya, lad: baby plus abusive baby daddy plus drugs and guns and all that shite equals very, very bad. Are you picking up what I’m putting down?” The three men stare at him emotionlessly again. “I’ve been incredibly stupid many times in my life, beginning with hiking it to London when I was seventeen to be a musician, and ending with ever letting that man touch me, I can’t be stupid anymore. I’m not just trying to keep myself alive, now.”

Cerberus and Hades have another mental conversation before Hades squints at Niall and says, “You give up the gun.”

“Nope, nuh-uh, how do I know you fuckers ain’t gonna kill me in my sleep and leave me on Tierney’s doorstep.”

Hades gives Niall a toothy, wolfish smile that doesn’t reach his eyes, “You’ll just have to trust us.”

Niall reaches behind him for his gun and holds it in front of his face, studying it carefully, thinking. “Whatever.” He holds it out between two fingers, like it disgusts him (which it kinda does, he’s not all that friendly with guns), and Cerberus takes it.

“You can stay here tonight, but I’ll be finding you different lodging tomorrow, understand?”

“Yes, sir!” Niall says with a mock salute, hiding his relief.

-*-*-

When Niall wakes, sun’s streaming over his face, and there’s a crick in his neck from sleeping on the couch. He’s starving, and he desperately needs the loo, but there’s voices just outside the lounge room door, and he ignores both in order to eaves drop.

“-can’t put him with her.” One voice says, he thinks it’s Cerberus. He’s sure the _he_ the man’s talking about is himself.

“Best option we’ve got. She can take care of herself.” A second voice says; Hades.

“I think he should stay here, you’re better equipped to deal with him if things get out of hand.” A third, female voice, says.

There’s a pause, and then one of them shuffles their feet. “I agree, I think he should stay here.” The last voice is Apollo’s.

“Liam-” Says Cerberus.

So Apollo’s real name is Liam.

“I’m serious. We can keep an eye on him, but he’s also safer here, if everything he’s saying is true. Lottie can deal with a moody, pregnant, unarmed criminal, but she won’t be able to deal with what might come after him.” 

“Fine.” Hades says, before Niall pulls open the door and smiles brightly at the occupants out in the hallway. The woman they’d been talking to is middle aged and has black hair piled into a messy bun on top of her head. Niall thinks her codename is Rhea, but he can’t remember. He does know that she coordinates the marijuana growers.

“Aren’t you just darling, sticking up for little ol’ me.” Niall says to Apollo – Liam – making a show of holding his hand against his heart. “Now would one of you darlings show me to the bathroom before I piss meself? Ta.”

Hades takes Niall by the elbow and leads him away from the group.

“Bye!” Niall calls, waving. He can tell he’s pissing off the big boss, and it’s making it all so much funnier.

“C’mon.” Hades says, tugging Niall forward harshly by his elbow.

He leads Niall to the bathroom, and stays outside the door while Niall pees.

“You could’ve come in and held me hand if you wanted to help.” Niall says cheekily when he exits the bathroom, flicking the residual water from his hands until Hades frowns.

“Just stop talking.”

“Yes, sir!” Niall says with a salute. He gets another frown, and Niall doesn’t say another word through the hallway, just to confuse the other man.

“Are you hungry?” Hades asks when they enter the kitchen. The house has gone quiet, and Niall decides the other occupants have either left, or quietened down so Niall can’t hear them.

“Fucking oath. Could eat a whole cow. Maybe two. What you got?”

“Cereal, toast.” Hades says with a shrug.

“Shoddy host you are.” Niall says with a put-upon sigh. “I suppose toast will do. Have you got peanut butter? And marmalade?”

Hades makes a disgusted face, and Niall decides that’s the most human he’s seen him look. It’s also fucking hilarious.

“What’s your name, anyway? I’m not going to go run and tell fuck-face, I just wanna know. You know mine.”

Hades puts the bread in the toaster and looks at Niall for a long time. “You can call me… William.”

“That isn’t your name.” Niall says, raising an eyebrow.

“No.”

(Niall decides he’s going to stick with Hades, because William is stupid).

Hades sets the toast, peanut butter and marmalade in front of Niall, and retrieves a jar of olives for Niall when he asks for it, face twisted in disgust.

Niall scoffs his breakfast down hungrily, and when he’s done, Hades takes his plate away, and drags him out of the kitchen and back down the hallway. He leads Niall to a door at the end of the hallway and opens it. It leads into what looks like a spare bedroom, with freshly made sheets.

“You can stay here until we get rid of you. You can’t sleep on the couch.”

“Cheers, bud.” Niall says cheerily, stepping into the room.

“I left some clothes on the dresser, if you want to change yours, and there’s towels next to it if you want to take a shower.”

“Aren’t you just the sweetest drug lord I ever did met.”

Hades ignores him. “While you’re here, you’re going to pitch in. I’m not going to let you sit on your arse.”

Niall’s cheery demeanour slips, and he turns to Hades, face expressionless. “I’m not telling you anything about Tierney.”

“This is a war kid, and wars don’t stop because your boyfriend gave you a slap over the face.”

Niall slaps Hades so hard his palm is stinging, and he thinks he draws blood, before kicking the door closed with a harsh bang.

Niall could kill him!

He kicks a couple things about and mutters under his breath for a long time, feeling the hot sting of tears in the corners of his eyes, before he collapses onto the bed, too tired and angry to do anything more than sleep.

-*-*-

He’s not sure how long he naps for, but it doesn’t feel like long, and the sun doesn’t seem to have moved much.

There’s a knock at the bedroom door, and then Cerberus is letting himself in, closing the door behind him. He’s got a soft expression on his face, kind and understanding, and Niall’s been around the block enough times to be cautious.

“He says shit he doesn’t mean sometimes. I know he didn’t mean that _at all_ , his dad used to beat up his mum.” Cerberus says. Niall doesn’t know why the man’s telling him these things, but he wants to know more, so he sits up and faces him. “The slap was well deserved. You got him good, too, made his nose bleed.”

“Does he want me to leave?” Niall says, trying his best not to sound as freaked out as he feels. Fuck, he just hit the only person between him, and him and his baby’s deaths.

“No, no, he knows he was a dick. He won’t apologise, though. He never does.” Cerberus shakes his head, an almost fond smile on his face, and then he sits down on the edge of the bed. “I’m Harry, by the way. Thought it might make it easier on you if you knew my name too, so you didn’t feel so… vulnerable.”

Niall doesn’t say anything.

“I’m really sorry Tierney treated you the way he did. I mean, I knew he was a dick, but I never knew how much of a dick.”

Niall still doesn’t say anything.

“If you need anything,” Cerberus – Harry – says after a moment’s pause, standing up again. “Just let me know. Anything at all.”

Niall sits up and stares at him, trying his best to keep his face expressionless, to mask the confusion and suspicion. “You’re sorta warm-blooded for a gangster, aren’t you?”

Harry gives Niall another kind smile and shrugs.

He’s almost out the door when Niall climbs off the bed and says, “I think I need a doctor.”

Harry turns back and nods, still smiling. “Hades’ called in a colleague; he’ll be here in the afternoon. Don’t take it personally, but he wants to know you’re telling the truth.”

Niall shrugs. “Understandable.”

Harry nods one last time and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

-*-*-

Niall doesn’t leave the room until Hades comes to get him for the doctor, sleeping most of the day away.

They wander the halls of an empty house, out into the lounge room Niall had slept in the night before, and inside, sitting on one of the armchairs, is a younger man who towers over them both, dressed in a smart, expensive-suit, and a scowl. He’s got a bag, and some sort of contraption that looks a bit like a nineties computer, and he instructs Niall to sit in the corner of the couch.

He does the normal checks, blood pressure and pulse, temperature, then takes a couple vials of blood before instructing Niall to lay down as he takes the contraption and a blue bottle from his bag.

Niall knows he’s pregnant, the vomiting and cramps and weird cravings (not that they weren’t weird before), had been a clear indication, but he’s suddenly scared, scared that he’s wrong, or maybe scared it died when Tierney beat on him the week before.

He suddenly feels very alone and very vulnerable as the doctor starts up the machine and pulls out his stethoscope. He puts the cold metal to Niall’s belly and waits, listens, before he turns to look at Hades.

“Two heartbeats.”

“Maybe I’m secretly a Time Lord.” Niall says, too nervous to do anything other than crack jokes. Hades gives him a look, and he doesn’t say anything else.

The doctor pours this cold, disgusting gel on Niall’s belly, then spreads it around with a little stick thing attached to the machine. The screen of the machine is facing away from him, and he desperately wishes the doctor would turn it around so he could see.

“There.” The doctor says to Hades. He presses a few buttons on the keyboard on the machine and says, “’Bout twenty weeks, but she’s small, you’ll need to get him vitamins, and he needs to eat a lot more than he obviously has been.”

“She?” Niall says, a little breathlessly, wrestling the machine away from the doctor, staring at the grey, baby-sized blob on the screen. “Jesus fucking Christ.” He says. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

The doctor and Hades talk about him, like he isn’t there, but he doesn’t pay attention to what they’re saying, too entranced by the image on the screen. He thinks she’s sleeping, she’s not moving, but she’s alive, and there’s a heartbeat.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” He says it in a mumble this time. “Can I have pictures? That’s a thing right?”

“You can, but I can’t print them here, I’ll need to go back to my office. I’ll send them back over before the end of the day.”

Niall wants to argue when the doctor starts packing his equipment away, he wants to watch her all day, but he doesn’t, just accepts the tissues he’s given, and wipes the gel from his skin, sitting up and setting his clothes to rights. 

Hades escorts the doctor out of the house, before returning to the lounge room. “Do you want food?”

“Yeah.” Niall says, sort of fuzzy and unfocused, mind still on the little blob on the doctor’s machine. He follows Hades into the kitchen without question and lets himself be sat at the counter. “I’m sorry for hitting you before.”

“Don’t be.” Hades replies, cutting off any other conversation, pulling out the ingredients for a sandwich. It’s probably the only apology Niall’s going to get, and it is an apology. He can hear it in Hades’ voice.

Once Hades has made Niall’s two sandwiches, he packs everything away and leaves the room, though Niall can hear him loitering in the hallway.

-*-*-

_Jack’s fucked up on something when he lets himself into his bedroom, where Niall is, laying on the bed pretending to be asleep, wishing desperately for him to leave. He smells like whiskey and gun powder, and a girl’s perfume, and Niall wants to gag._

_“Know you’re awake, Nialler.” He says to Niall, pulling at the duvet until it slips off the bed, leaving Niall cold and vulnerable._

_Jack climbs on top of him, binding Niall’s arms between his knees, and then swoops down, like he’s going to kiss him. Niall dodges it, but he gets a slap for his effort, and then Jack’s fingers are in his hair, holding him where he wants him._

_Jack tastes like vomit and Niall gags, earning him another slap._

_Jack’s touching Niall, everywhere, hands sliding up his arms, over his chest; everywhere he touches, Niall’s skin begins to rot, flesh going white, then bloating, the decaying until there’s nothing left of him._

Niall wakes in a cold sweat, climbing off the bed so fast he tangles himself in the sheets and goes down to the floor with a heavy thud. He gets himself out of the mess, heart beating erratically, and goes to turn the light on, mumbling to himself, over and over again, “He’s not here, he’s not here, you’re okay, you’re okay.”

He hears footsteps outside the door, and he begins to panic again, barricading the door using his own body as someone tries to get in.

“Niall? Niall, open the- open the fucking door.”

It’s not him, it’s not him, it’s not him, it’s not him.

It takes a moment, but he does open the door, just a sliver, looking out into the bright hallway where Hades is standing, dressed in nothing but tartan pyjama pants, frowning.

“What happened?” Hades asks.

“Nothing, I’m fine, go away please.” Niall says, closing the door again, baking himself up against it.

“Niall.” Hades says, like a warning. “What are you doing in there?”

“It was a dream,” Niall says, covering his face with his hands. “It’s fine, just please go away. I fell off the bed, I didn’t break anything.”

There’s quiet outside the door for a long time, before finally, finally, Niall hears Hades’ footsteps leaving and he breathes a sigh of relief.

He slides down the door to the ground and wraps his arms around his legs, hiding his face in his knees. 

_You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay._

-*-*-

Niall pretends nothing happened when he sees Hades the next morning, coming out of the study where he can hear more voices than normally in the house. Hades pretends too.

“There’s bakery food in the kitchen if you’re hungry.” Hades tells Niall. He’s got a gun tucked into a holster under his arm, and knife strapped to his thigh, and Niall wonders what kind of meeting would warrant such extreme measures.

“Thanks.” Niall replies cheerily, though his gut is churning.

His smiles falls when Hades disappears back into his office, and he debates whether he should listen at the door, or whether he should go to the kitchen. His stomach decides for him.

There’s boxes of stuff in the kitchen all stamped with the name of a bakery Niall’s pretty sure Hades uses as one of his cover businesses. They’re filled with pastries and pies and cakes and loaves of bread. Niall’s suddenly hungrier than he initially thought. He takes a Cornish pasty, a cheese kransky and two mini pecan pies, heating up the savoury food and eating it all, going in after they’re finished for another mini pie.

The meeting breaks up as he’s eating the pie, and Hades, Harry and Liam emerge in the kitchen while whoever else had been in the study leaves the house. They seem to be talking about something pretty important, but they stop when they realise Niall still in the kitchen.

“These are pretty good.” He says, shoving the last of the pie in his mouth. “You can keep talking you know, it’s not like I’ve got anyone to spill your secrets too, and I know about the men on the doors. Besides, if it doesn’t involve hurting anyone in Tierney’s team I actually like, I could probably help. Chip in, like you said.”

Hades gives him a look, then has another mental conversation with Harry. “Right, let’s hear it. Rouge copper’s looking to get in.”

Niall makes an unsure noise and takes another pie. He thinks he could eat them all. “You know he’s rouge? And is he higher up, ‘cause a lackey’s useless.”

Harry looks at Hades, and gets a nod. “Constable. No family left living, he’s caught one of dealers a few times and let him off.”

“He’s a police plant.” Niall says, stuffing the pie in his mouth. “Too easy, gimme another.”

“Explain.”

“No good rouge copper I ever met was alone. They all had families to provide for. Coppers get paid shite. Plus, letting your guy off? He wants to get in yer good books. Take the dealer out and put another in, someone they won’t expect, young, pretty girl, maybe still in school, or someone with another job.”

Harry looks at Hades again, and after receiving another nod, he leaves the room.

“How can you be sure?” Liam asks suspiciously.

“Tierney had a young lad, newly DC’d, no family, very few friends, got six of his dealers arrested. It’s not about surety, it’s about suspicion.”

Liam nods, like it makes sense to him.

“You got a TV? I’m bored as bat shit.” Niall says, taking another two pies.

Hades leads him to a room off the hallway with couches and a television, and gives him the remote, leaving him to it. There’s not a lot on TV, but Niall manages to settle on a rerun of EastEnders, eating his pies, perfectly content.

-*-*-

_“Such a pretty boy, Nialler. Gonna bruise you all up, make sure everyone knows what’s mine.”_

Niall realises someone’s in the room when he wakes up, and he gropes desperately for his gun, hand under his pillow, before he remembers he doesn’t have it, and all he finds is the sonogram of his baby he’d been given.

“It’s okay, Niall, it’s just me.” A voice says when Niall goes for the lamp on the bedside table. The lights flicker on, and Niall’s blinded for a moment before the room comes into view. Harry’s standing at the end of the bed, dress in joggers and nothing else. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, go the fuck away, get out, what the fuck.” Niall says, shielding his eyes from the bright light. “Get out.”

He sees Harry frown, then nod, and he leaves, turning the light off and shutting the door behind himself.

Niall sighs in relief and lays back down on the bed, hand sliding under his pillow again for his sonogram this time, holding it against his chest as he closes his eyes.

_You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay._

He can’t sleep anymore, but he’s calmer, doesn’t feel like he’s about to jump out of skin anymore. He climbs out of the bed and pulls on one of his borrowed hoodies, sneaking out of the room and into the TV room. He puts the television on low and leaves it on something mindless, staring at the sonogram in his hands in the blue glow. He thinks the fluttering in his belly means his baby is awake as well. 

“Got to sleep, leanbh, I’ll protect you.” He says softly, holding the sonogram to his chest again, over his heart.

-*-*-

Harry wakes him up hours later with a cup of tea and some toast, and Niall takes it gratefully. His neck hurts from sleeping sitting up and the sonogram’s fallen into his lap, and he snatches it up carefully, putting it in his pocket.

“I have nightmares, too.” Harry says after Niall’s taken a sip of his tea, sitting in the opposite corner of the couch, turned towards him. “Back before Hades found me, I’d kinda run away? My mum and sister, they were great, but my mum’s boyfriend liked me a little too much, and I didn’t know how to tell her. Thought it’d break her heart, so I left.”

His face is twisted in pain, and Niall says nothing, just listens. They don’t know each other well enough to be having this conversation, but since Niall got here, all Harry has tried to do is prevent Niall from feeling vulnerable and alone. Niall’s grateful, so he listens.

“I didn’t leave before he’d done something, though. You know what I mean? Anyway, I hiked it to London and slept on the streets for a few months. There was this lovely older lady who owned this bakery in Regency, and whenever she’d see me, she’d give me food, coffee, whatever. She’d tried to give me a job, but I’d already taken up prostitution at that point. You know, she almost lost her bakery last year, so Hades bought it. She knows what we do, but she doesn’t care as long as we don’t do business in the shop.” Harry takes a deep breath and shrugs, looking down into his lap at his twitching fingers. “I got beat up one night, real bad. Taken for all I had. For a long time I just laid in an alley thinking I was gonna die. As luck would have it, I’d gotten myself into the alley of one of Hades’ places. He took me to Nick, the doctor you met, got me fixed up, and I’ve been with him ever since.” Harry blinks up at Niall and gives him a sad smile. “He seems like a dick, and he has to be, for people to respect him, but he’s a good guy. He didn’t get into this for the money. He let you stay cause he saw the same thing in you that he saw in me.” Harry takes a piece of toast from the plate, and Niall lets him. He looks like he needs something to do with his hands. “I don’t have them much anymore, the nightmares, not since Liam and I started sleeping in the same bed. They still happen, but he’s like my knight.”

“My skin’s rotting.” Niall finally says after a long silence. “When he touches me. Until there’s nothing left but bone. And if I don’t wake up then, Ja-Tierney, he’ll look down and where my stomach is, my baby’ll be there. Rotted, just like me. And he’ll laugh.”

“Harry?” Liam calls, peaking into the lounge room. “We got a problem, he needs us.”

Harry nods and reaches out to squeeze Niall’s arm carefully, in comfort, before they both disappear from the room.

Niall finishes his tea and his toast and turns the television off, before going snooping in the room, just for fun.

There’s not a lot of personal items, just a huge case full of DVDs of all kinds, a case of books, mostly crimes and classics, and hidden away in a bottom drawer, right at the back, a photograph of six children, two older girls, one blonde and the other brunette, a set of blonde twins, and another set of twins, toddlers, one a red haired girl, the other a blonde boy. The oldest two are too old to be either Hades, Harry or Liam’s children, so Niall decides they must be someone’s siblings.

“Niall.”

“Shit fuck.” Niall swears, turning around to face Hades, hiding the picture behind his back. “Hades.”

“What have you got there?”

“Nothing.”

Hades takes it from Niall, and Niall lets him. Hades doesn’t react more than a twitch of his eye, and he says, “Where did you find this?”

“Bottom drawer.” Niall answers truthfully. He doesn’t bother asking who they are. Hades reaction, or lack thereof, tell him they’re the man’s siblings. “Are they dead?”

Hades scowls at Niall. “No, they’re not.” He doesn’t say anything else, instead he takes Niall’s elbow and leads him out into the hallway. “C’mon.”

“You’re killing me _now_?” Niall says, joking, nervous, afraid.

“No. Stop talking.”

“The bat cave.” Niall says when Louis leads him into the office. Inside, there’s a desk, a long table with chairs, and long stretches of walls covered in nothing but filing cabinets. There’s two seats left at the table, the other eight filled, one at the end, and the other beside it.

“Sit.” Hades orders, pushing Niall towards the chair next to Liam. He realises the man’s a lot more forceful around everyone but Harry and Liam. Niall’s not surprised, Louis would probably have to be a dead scary fuck to make these people follow him. They look quintessentially gangster.

Niall looks at Harry, fighting to keep his mask in place, desperately trying to hide his fear, and Harry nods at him once, as if to say _I’m here_.

“We’re taking down Tierney once and for all, and Niall here’s going to help us. I’m sure you all know who he is?”

“No, no, no. No, I’m not, I’m not.” Niall says. He feels his mask fall as his climbs off the chair and backs away from the table. “No, fuck no.”

“Sit _down_ , Niall.” Hades, quiet, but forceful. Niall does.

“How’d you get him?” One man asks, like Niall’s an elusive fish they’ve been trying to catch for years. Fuck, maybe he is.

“He came to us.” Harry answers in Hades place.

Niall’s heart is beating rapidly, and he’s sweating. They want him to help them kill Jack, and if they fail, Niall will die in his place.

“Why?” A woman asks, to Niall. Niall can’t answer, his hearts in throat.

“Protection.” Hades says, finally sitting at the head of the table. “I plan to use his reason for coming here as our loophole.

Niall realises it’s even worse than he thought. They want to get Tierney put away.

“No, nope, fuck that,” Niall says, climbing off the chair again. “You do that, I’m as good as dead, might as well fucking shoot me now. You kill him, or you leave him the fuck alone while I’m here.”

“We don’t do that. We don’t kill.”

Niall’s confused, yeah, but still too scared and angry to care. “Fine, give me my gun, you go after him, I’ll put one right between his eyes, if I don’t, I’m dead, my baby’s dead, my da’s dead, my brother’s dead, everyone I ever met or ever cared about. He dies or I do.”

Niall storms out of the room, heart hammering in his chest. He needs his gun, he needs to get out of here. Maybe he could go to Ireland now, maybe Tierney won’t come after him.

He’s pulling all the kitchen drawers open, hyperventilating, head throbbing.

“Niall? Niall, Niall, you need to calm down.” Hades says, taking Niall by his shoulders, stopping his frantic search.

“Where’s my gun, I need my gun, give me my gun.”

“Niall, breathe.” Hades says. His voice is soothing, and he’s got his forehead pressed to Niall’s. his skin is cool, and it helps the heat in Niall’s own withdraw. “Breathe, breathe. I’ll get your gun. But you have to stay here, in the house. You’re safe. You’re okay.”

_You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay._

“That’s it, breathe.”

Niall slides down to the floor, and Hades goes with him, hands around Niall’s face now.

“There you go.”

“You can’t do it.” Niall says, when he can remember how to talk again. “You can’t do it. Anything else, but not that.”

“We have to do something, Niall. We have to do something.”

“Please, please, just let me think about it, please just let me think about it. I know about everything he does, let me think about it, don’t do it like that.” Niall says, squeezing his eyes shut. “Please just let me think about it.”

“Okay, love, okay. Okay.”

Niall’s skin starts to crawl and he pulls away from Hades, standing up and leaving the kitchen. He goes back to the room he’s staying in and closes the door behind him, getting into the bed and under the covers.

_You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay._

He hears someone come in, but doesn’t come out from under the covers, and then hears the clatter of his gun being set down on the bedside table, and the door shutting again. The magazine’s on the table next to his gun, still full, and Niall realises Hades is trusting him, trusting him not to kill them in their sleep, but also giving him back the ability to protect himself.

Niall tucks both items in the top drawer of the bedside table, and realises he can breathe easier. It doesn’t feel like someone’s sitting on his chest anymore.

-*-*-

Niall thinks a lot over the next few weeks, but every single plan he’s come up with so far he knows is going to get them all killed.

Hades wants Tierney gone, but doesn’t want any of his people killing him, Niall wants to kill him, but probably doesn’t have the guts, so he needs to come up with something that’ll get the cops knocking down Tierney’s door, something he’ll want to die for, rather than go to jail for. 

Suicide by cop. It’s all he’s got so far.

“How do you even know you’ll be able to trick him into killing himself?” Harry asks while Niall sits with the notepad and pen Hades had given him, thinking. Most of the paper on the pad is gone, failed plans gone to the bin.

“Everyone has something they’d die to protect. People, secrets.” Niall replies, tapping the pen on the notepad. It annoys both Liam and Hades when he does but it helps him think, and Harry knows that, so he never takes it from him. “Everyone.”

“How do you know Tierney’s something will be a police related something?”

“I don’t know, Harry.” Niall whines. “Go annoy Liam or something, Jesus.”

Harry pouts, but he nods and leaves the kitchen.

Niall watches the pen tap against the notepad, almost hypnotised, breathing carefully. The baby’s active, wriggling around in his belly like bloody worm, but it isn’t hindering his concentration.

“Anything?”

“Fuck!” Niall cries, jumping in his seat, watching the pen as it goes flying across the room, landing at Hades feet. “No! Fuck off!”

“Hey, don’t get snappy.” Hades says. He’s not angry, Niall thinks he might be amused. “I came for tea.”

“Fine, whatever.” Niall says, taking the pen when Hades hands it back to him, scowling.

Hades is smiling indulgently. He knows Niall’s not angry at him, but at himself. God, Niall hates his pretty fucking face.

Niall groans and drops his head on the counter.

“You need a break, pet.” Hades says, forgoing his tea to pull Niall out of his chair. “C’mon.”

“Where are we going?” Niall says suspiciously, following him down the hallway. His hand is around Niall’s wrist, but his slides down to take his hand, and Niall’s heart kicks, causing an excited movement from his baby. Fucking traitors.

Hades hands Niall a coat and shoes from his own closet while Niall waits in the hallway, and Niall doesn’t argue, slipping them both on.

He’s led into the garage, down at the end of the hallway. Niall’s not been in it before, and he takes a look around while Hades picks a pair of keys from a box by the door. It’s at least twice the size of any normal house garage, and inside sit three cars, a black Alfa Romero, a dark grey Audi, and a black Mercedes, as well as two motorbikes, a Harley Davidson and a Ducati. 

The windows in the cars are all tinted, but Niall’s still unsure.

“I don’t…”

“C’mon, it’s alright.” Hades says, holding his hand out to Niall.

Niall stares at it for a long time, the _28_ tattooed over his knuckles, the heart, diamond, club and spade around his wrist, then finally takes it.

Niall hasn’t been out of the house in almost three months, and it’s a relief, even if he’s in a car, he feels like he can breathe again.

Hades doesn’t really go anyone in particular, just drives around, beside the Thames, down Oxford, hand still in Niall’s over the console, like he’d forgotten it was there.

Someone follows them for a while, one of Tierney’s men, but they get bored after a while when they realise Hades isn’t going anywhere in particular, and somehow, Niall isn’t scared. He feels safe. With Hades.

Niall falls asleep, and when he wakes up, they’re home, back in the garage, and Hades is waking him up, a gentle hand on his cheek.

“C’mon, pet, we’re back.”

Niall stares at Hades for a long time, taking in the shape of his face, the blue of his eyes, like the ocean, feels the tingle in his skin where Hades’ hand is touching him, and leans forward, pressing a grateful and chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth before he climbs out of the car.

“Thank you, Hades.” Niall says when the man meets him at the door into the house.

Hades takes Niall’s cheek in his hand, smiling at him. “It’s Louis.”

-*-*-

“She’s looking a lot healthier.” Nick says, staring at the ultrasound screen, at Niall’s baby. She’s got the hiccups, and it kinda tickles, Niall can’t help laughing. “Good size, everything looks like its developing the way it should.”

“She’s still breech.” Louis says from the armchair he’d moved towards the couch. “Do we need to worry?”

“When’d you learn so much about babies?” Niall says, laughing.

“My mum was a midwife.” Louis says, distractedly staring at the ultrasound screen.

Niall stops laughing.

Besides his name and the photo Niall had found, Niall knows very little about Louis. Now he knows his mum was a midwife. Was she retired or dead?

“She’s fine. If she’s not turned next time I come we’ll make a breech plan, alright?” Nick says, starting his clean up. “I’ll send over another sonogram tonight, Niall.”

“Can I ask a quick question, doc?”

Nick nods, and Niall stares at Louis until he gets it, throws his hands up with a laugh and leaves the room.

“This is sorta…” Niall can’t figure out how to ask. Nick seems to understand though, and Niall doesn’t know whether he’s glad or embarrassed.

“It’s safe to have sex. The amniotic sack will protect her, and the mucus plug will guard against infection. Just nothing too kinky.” Nick lets out a laugh. “If anything feels wrong afterwards, any blood or such, you can give me a ring.”

Niall nods and thanks him.

Louis lets the doctor out while Niall wipes the gel off his belly with tissues and stares down it. He’s getting huge, and he feels a bit like an elephant, his feet are swollen and he’s been a bit of a moody fuck, but he’s pretty much loving it.

Louis reappears while Niall’s sitting up and pushing his t-shirt down.

“So,” Niall says, using the arm of the couch to push himself up so he’s standing. “Your mum?”

Louis doesn’t saying anything, just smiles indulgingly at Niall.

“Fine.” Niall replies, feeling a little snotty. He goes to the kitchen, and Louis follows him, taking Niall’s chin in his hand, pressing a kiss to Niall’s forehead.

“She died of leukaemia in 2016.” Louis tells him, voice soft. “I was her first born, her only for seven years. When my parents broke up, she’d sometimes take me with her to home births, when no one could look after me.”

“I’m sorry.” Niall presses his forehead to Louis’s gently, and lets his eyes fall closed. “Will you tell me about her?”

“Another time.” Louis replies, kissing the corner of Niall’s mouth. “I wanna know what you asked Nick when I left the room.”

Niall chuckles and pulls away from Louis, taking a mini pie from the box of bakery goods on the counter. “Curiosity killed the cat.”

“C’mon. We can go on a drive again?” Louis bargains.

Niall leans against the counter and stares around the kitchen. Liam’s in Oxfordshire and Harry’s in Regency. It’s just them. Now’s a good a time as any to get your heart stomped on.

He swallows the last of the pie and pads to Louis, standing in front of him, toe to toe, and leaning in. The kiss is short and chaste, like their normal affectionate kisses in the corner of the mouth, but this one isn’t in the corner of the mouth. God willing Louis gets Niall’s meaning without him needing to make of himself any more than he’s going to already.

“Oh.” Louis says, when Niall pulls away. “I think I understand.”

Niall keeps his eyes closed, unwilling to see the disgust on Louis’s face, and after a moment goes by with nothing but the sound of their breathing, he opens them, blinking at Louis, who’s got this stupid, almost goofy smile on his face.

Louis kisses Niall this time, and it isn’t short or chaste. It’s hard and dirty, and it makes Niall’s heart beat like a jackhammer, his skin burn where they’re touching.

“You cheeky bugger.” Louis says when they part for breath. “You asked Nick if you could have sex while pregnant.”

“Shut up.” Niall says, kissing Louis again, getting his fingers in the hair at the nape of Louis’s neck.

Louis gets Niall pressed against the counter, one leg wrapped around his hip, licking into his mouth, and Niall thinks he may have died and gone to heaven.

Louis tastes bitter, like his favourite tea, and Niall moans, dying for more.

Louis gets his hands under Niall’s shirt, slides them up his back and down again, before moving to his belly and chest. His fingers brush over Niall’s sensitive nipples, and Niall whimpers, biting Louis’s lip.

“Louis, I…” Niall can’t even say it now.

“It’s alright, pet, I’ll take care of you.”

Niall follows behind Louis to his bedroom. He’s never been inside before, and he doesn’t have a chance to check out before Louis tugging his t-shirt over his head and kissing him again.

“Tell me if you need to stop.” Louis says softly, holding Niall’s face in his hands.

Niall nods. “I will.”

They kiss until Niall’s mouth is swollen and sore, and his brain is a rush of _louislouislouislouis_ , and Niall wants everything.

It’s a struggle to get naked, but they manage it, stripping items of clothing of between kisses, breathing frantically. Niall’s suddenly worried, standing there naked, in front of Louis, about the picture he makes; pregnant belly, stretch marks, swollen feet, the chloasma on his neck. He’s not ever been so self-conscious.

Louis can tell. He presses their foreheads together and says, “I can’t express how beautiful you are.”

It doesn’t cure the self-consciousness, but it helps, and Niall accepts the kiss Louis places on his lips. It’s softer, kinder, and Niall feels safe here, in Louis’s arms.

“D’you wanna lie on the bed pet?”

Niall nods, and does just that, climbing on top of the mattress and laying himself against the pillows. Louis climbs over him, careful of his belly, and kisses him slowly, drugging, leaving Niall breathless, his skin burning hot. Louis’s careful with him, like he’s precious or something, and it’s so different from the treatment he received from Tierney that it makes his eyes sting as he lets out a soft whimper.

“You okay?” Louis asks, voice soft, taking Niall’s cheek in his hand, running his thumb over Niall’s cheekbone.

Niall nods, and he realises he’s more okay then he’s been in months, maybe even years.

He surges up for another kiss, winding his arms around Louis neck, and Louis meets him in kind, still stroking Niall’s cheek. He licks into Niall’s mouth, tastes him, then says, “What do you want, sweetheart.”

“Everything.”

Louis’s answering smile is soft, and his gives Niall another long, drugging kiss, before trailing a line of sweet, wet kisses down Niall’s body. Fireworks are bursting under Niall’s skin, and his cock is so hard he thinks it might burst.

“Lou, please.”

Louis ignores him in favour of lavishing Niall’s belly with attention, pressing kisses to his skin and whispering words to the baby inside Niall can’t hear.

“Louis, please.”

“So impatient.” Louis says with a soft chuckle, pressing one last kiss to Niall’s belly, before climbing back over him and reaching into the top drawer of the left bedside table. “Hold onto these.” He hands Niall a condom and a bottle of lube, and Niall whimpers, watching Louis drop down between his thighs again.

“Lou.”

“I know, pet.” Louis says, rubbing his bearded chin over Niall’s thigh before taking Niall’s cock in his hand, mouth up the side until he reaches the head and takes it into his mouth. He sucks at it, licking at the slit, and Niall’s whole body bows, groaning in pleasure. 

“Fuck, Lou, fuck, fuck, jesus Christ.”

“You got a dirty mouth on you, Nialler.”

“Don’t call me that.” Niall snaps, body suddenly cold.

“Shit, pet, I’m sorry.” Louis says softly, climbing off of Niall’s body, sitting beside him.

Niall sits up with him. “Please don’t stop, just… just don’t call me that.”

“Are you sure, baby? We can stop.”

Niall’s erection has flagged, but he still wants it, wants Louis. He climbs into Louis’s lap and wraps his arms around Louis’s neck, kissing him softly, then forcefully when Louis responds.

Louis takes hold of Niall’s thighs and shuffles to the head of the bead, sitting back against the head board. Niall decides he likes it here and hands the lube and condom still grasped in his hand back to Louis.

Louis’s quick, but careful, when he fingers Niall, like he’s desperate to get inside him, one finger and then two and three in quick succession. Niall feels just as desperate, whining Louis’s name over and over, like a mantra.

“Please, please, please fuck me, please, I want it, please.”

It’s a struggle, to get the condom on Louis’s cock, and the lube over it, when neither of them can see, but Niall helps (more like hinders), and finally, finally, Louis’s sliding inside.

Niall hasn’t had it for so long (when and like he wanted it), and he knows the minute Louis bottoms out he’s going to come quick. Everything feels too much and not enough at the same time, and Niall just feels so _full_.

“Can I move, pet?”

“Please, god, yes.”

Louis’s slow at first, hands around Niall’s hips, guiding his cock in and out, in out, steadily gaining speed until he’s jolting Niall’s body about, and Niall can do more than whimper Louis’s name.

Louis gentle with him, careful not to go too far in so he doesn’t hurt the baby, and it’s sweet and everything, but Niall just wants him to fuck him.

He gets mad eventually, and slaps Louis’s hands away so he can take over, thighs burning as he bounces himself up and back down again. Louis’s watching him, pupils blown and mouth open in a drawn out moan, and it just makes Niall wanted it faster. He wants to blow Louis’s fucking mind.

He wants to stay.

He stores that thought away for later, he can’t deal with it right now. He wants to come, and he wants Louis to come. 

He twists his hips, and suddenly Louis’s cock is hitting Niall’s prostate and he’s so close he thinks he could scream. He goes at the angle he’s found, squeezing around Louis’s cock when he goes down, and then Louis’s grabbing his hips and holding him down, coming inside him, moaning his pleasure into Niall’s throat. 

Louis sits back and watches as Niall takes his own pleasure, until he, too, comes, moaning Louis’s name into the ceiling, then collapsing onto him, panting into his throat.

Louis rubs his sweaty back, whispering words Niall can’t quite make out into his ear, and Niall just wants to stay like this forever.

-*-*-

Niall’s awake first, curled into Louis’s side as he lays on his front, their faces inches apart. He looks younger like this, more innocent, and Niall traces patterns over his back, circles and squares and hearts and spirals.

“That tickles.” Louis says, voice rough with sleep, eyes still closed. 

He doesn’t stop Niall, so Niall keeps going. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Hmm.” Louis mumbles in acquiescence.

“What did you mean when you said ‘ _we don’t do that_ ’?”

Louis blinks one eye open, then closes it again, nuzzling further into the pillow. “In what instance?”

“When I told you to kill Tierney.” Niall replies, tracing the bumps of Louis’s spine.

“Oh.” Louis opens his eyes again and blinks up at Niall a couple times. “I meant we don’t kill people.”

“I don’t understand. You’re gangsters.”

Louis moves them about until he’s curled around Niall’s back, face pressed into Niall’s neck, a protective hand spread over Niall’s belly. “We’re a crime syndicate. There’s a difference.”

Niall frowns, sliding his hand over Louis’s. “I still don’t understand.”

“Our list of specialties, which is exhaustive, doesn’t ever include murder.” Louis replies. His erection is pressed into the curve of Niall’s arse, but they both ignore it. “It never has. It helps us stay under the cop’s radar, number one, and it means no revenge killings from rival organizations.”

Niall sort of understands. He thinks. “What do you do, exactly, then? Tierney never really told me.”

“I started out a small time drug dealer, weed and pills, sometimes heroin and cocaine, but very rarely. The big boss got killed by a rival, so everyone got bumped up the food chain a bit. I ended up with more area, and then a growing opportunity, and it kinda went up from there. The new big boss liked me, probably cause I fucked his brains out three times a week, and he gave me run of the weed side.” Louis runs his thumb over Niall’s skin, and he can feel the baby moving towards the touch. “He got killed, and they put in this bitch, Marnie. God, I hated her guts. She was an honest-to-god psychopath, liked torturing and killing people just for fun. One day I had enough of it.” Louis doesn’t say anything for a long time, and Niall can feel the rapidness of his heartbeat against his back. “She’s the only person I ever killed. I didn’t want to, but I had to.”

“You don’t have to tell me anymore.”

Louis nuzzles into Niall’s neck. “I want to.”

“Okay.”

“I didn’t want to be in charge, I just wanted her out, I was perfectly happy where I was, but Caroline, she was with me back then, she said I had to.” Louis’s quiet for so long Niall thinks for a moment he’s actually fallen back asleep, until he finally speaks, “I know Harry’s told you the story of how we met. It wasn’t long after the whole Marnie thing. He helped keep me sane, helped me sort the business. We told everyone ‘ _no more murdering, no more violence, if you can’t deal with that, we put you in a hole in the ground no one would ever think to look for you in_ ’. We had to take a stand. A few people broke the rules afterwards, and we did exactly what we said we’d do, put them in this old World War Two bunker for two months each, bare minimum of food and water, no interaction, no books, no nothing. It worked, no one killed again, though one of the one’s we put in the bunker went a bit nuts and we had to put her in Nightingale, but… anyway.”

“What if someone killed one of your people?”

“No retaliation murder, remember?” Louis replies, kissing Niall’s shoulder. “Anyway, where was I? Right. Initially, we stuck to the basics, drugs, a little trafficking, no humans, though, guns and drugs and shit. Extortion, faud, theft, though on a wider scale than home invasions and store robberies, that all came later, though we still mostly stick to the drugs and the trafficking.” Louis presses another kisses to Niall’s shoulder. “My highest higher-ups help with the special projects.”

“Like what?” Niall asks slowly, sort of distracted.

Louis pulls away from Niall and lays him on this back, pressing a kiss to his belly. “Ratting out other groups.” Louis says, pressing another kiss to Niall’s belly. “Hijacking trafficking operations and taking victims back to their families, or to shelters.” Louis kisses Niall’s skin where the curve of his belly meets his chest. Niall’s cock is taking an interest, now. “Returning bodies of other criminals to their families.”

Louis’s kissing over one of Niall’s nipples, about to speak again, when inspiration strikes him.

“Holy fuck.” Niall says, holding Louis at arms-length, sitting up as the man frowns at him in confusion. “Holy fuck.”

“What’s wrong?”

Niall gives Louis his dopiest grin. “I know what to do. I know how to get Tierney.”

Louis pouts, but he looks pleased, maybe even proud. “Great timing, pet.”

-*-*-

“I heard about this place,” Niall begins to explain to the room of Louis’s most trusted employees. “I only heard about it once. Tierney had this theory that if he didn’t know where the bodies were buried, he couldn’t be liable, but I know at least ten of those people were murdered at his hand.”

“How do you know it’s a real place? And do you even know where it is?” Archer asks from the other side of the table to where Niall’s standing.

“I don’t know if it’s real, but I heard the name. I also know that no one knows that I know the name. I was sorta eavesdropping. The point is, I take the information to the cops. I’m wrong? We come up with another plan. I’m right? Tierney’s screwed.”

“One of his plants in the police force could warn him before they get to him.” Caroline says solemnly, frowning thoughtfully.

“Which is why I plan to meet with two police officers I know aren’t rogue, tell them exactly who’s been working with Tierney, and watch them go down with him.” Niall replies. A few are nodding, in agreement, but most are still unsure.

“It’s still not enough evidence for a conviction.”

“We don’t need a conviction,” Louis says, arms crossed over his chest, sitting regally at the head of the table. “We need enough evidence for an arrest, enough that it looks to Tierney like he might be going down, he’ll do the rest for us.”

“I still don’t understand, sir.” 

“Niall believes that if there’s enough evidence that it looks to Tierney like he could be convicted, if enough of his people and his contacts go down, he’s going to take the easy way out.” Harry answers.

“Suicide by cop?” Archer says, eyebrows raised in amused disbelief.

“Tierney’s a coward,” Niall says. “He picked me because I was smaller, less physically imposing. He very rarely does his own dirty work, unless absolutely necessary.”

Harry sighs. “The only snag we’ve hit is an explanation as to where Niall’s been for the last three months.”

“Uh,” Everyone turns to look at Caroline. “Jesy, the girl we swapped with Matt when the constable came sniffing around? She works at a café on Oxford. She can say Niall went in for coffee when he left Tierney’s, and she felt bad for him, took him in.”

“What about the neighbours?” Archer asks. “I think they’d notice a new, bleach-blonde staying at her flat.”

“He’s a breeder, Arch,” Liam says. “They’re still marginalised. He tells them he went in one night and very rarely went out, no one will know the difference.”

“Right,” Says Archer. He’s starting to get on Niall’s nerves. He’s got a funny feeling about him, hair standing up at the nape of his neck. “Niall goes into the police station.”

“No.” Niall replies. “I call into the police station, ask the two detectives to come to Jesy’s flat. If I go to the station, Tierney’s plants will see me.”

“Okay… you meet the police at Jesy’s flat, you tell them you know where Tierney’s syndicate’s victims are buried, you tell them Tierney’s police plants, they go to the mansion and pick Tierney up. Except you expect him to die rather than surrender?”

Niall’s so glad he decided to bring his gun in.

“Niall, what the fuck?” Louis asks as Niall’s got his gun pointed at Archer’s head.

“Every time any of you talk about Tierney’s place, every single one of you, without fail, call it his house. Tierney’s guys call it the mansion. It’s not even a fucking mansion. It’s two fucking stories.” Niall says, watching everyone scatter out from between himself and Archer. “You’re a fucking idiot.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Archer says. He’s trying to mask his face with the confusion of being accused of treason, but the corner of his mouth is twitching, only minutely, and Niall was always very good at reading body language.

“Niall, put the gun down.” Harry says.

“Shut up, Harry.” Niall says. He sees Archer’s fingers twitch on the table, and Niall turns his attention back to him. “I’m hormonal and pregnant and holding a gun, do you really want to test me?”

“Hades, I have no idea what he’s talking about.” He’s pleading, he wants Louis to think he’s afraid of dying.

“You started as a dealer, made your way up fast, got in by catching Tierney’s plant in the storehouse.” Louis says, hand on the butt of the gun at his hip, suddenly as suspicious as Niall. He’s unsure still, Niall can tell, but definitely suspicious. “Earned my trust.” He turns to Niall. “My trust isn’t easy to earn.”

“Tierney knows a lot, about all of you. Has files and files of it in the computer. It’s how I got in the first night.” Niall replies. “If he wanted to put a plant in, he’d know exactly what to make him say and do in order for you to trust him.”

Archer’s hand twitches again, and then the corner of his mouth. Niall takes off the safety.

The air’s rife with tension for a few long moments, before Archer’s face twists into something ugly and he starts for his gun. “Tierney ag dul chun do leannàn beag a mharú agus do leanbh a ghearradh ó do bolg.”

Niall’s shot him before he’s even realised what he’s down, and he thanks ever god that’s ever existed that he’s a lousy shot when it hits his shoulder, when he’d intended to get him in the forehead.

Someone goes for Archer’s gun as he howls in pain, and Louis takes Niall’s from him, handing it to Harry.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Niall says as he’s taken from the room, suddenly desperately frightened. Fuck, he’s never actually shot someone before.

“Niall? Niall, pet, what happened? What did he say?” Louis says, taking Niall’s face in his hands, pressing their foreheads together.

“I’ve never shot someone before. I was aiming for his head.” Niall says, heart beating hard in his chest. “Tierney knows I’m here. We have to do this now.”

-*-*-

Jesy sneaks him in through the alleyway behind her flat, into the back garden. She helps him look the part of the lost, pregnant ex-boyfriend of a murderer, dressed in her brother’s clothes, two sizes too big, his hair messy. He knows Louis and his people are watching (the warehouse across the road, the empty flat next door, the car in the alleyway), and it settles the knots in Niall’s stomach.

Jesy lets Detective Inspector Moray, lead of the gang taskforce, and Sergeant Barracks in twenty minutes after Niall’s arrival, and Niall gets up to greet them shyly. He can tell by their demeanours they’re both wary, and suspicious, and he can also tell they know who he is. But they came.

“Mr Horan.” Emory Moray greets. She’s a stern looking woman in her forties dressed in a smart skirt suit, her long black hair in a tight bun at the nape of her neck. The sergeant, an older man with greying hair and a dark grey suit, doesn’t speak.

They sit on the couch across from the armchair Niall had taken as his own, and he curls his legs up against his chest as Jesy offers to make them all tea.

“Stay?” He asks, taking her wrist in his palm. She knows well enough that he’s putting on their friendship, but it’s also call for safety. She’s got a handgun stashed away in the lounge room, and he doesn’t know where it is. They’ll need it if things go to shit.

“It’s alright, pet, I’m just going to make tea, I’ll be right back.” The pet name reminds Niall of Louis, and the look in Jesy’s eyes tells Niall it was on purpose, like Louis had told her to say it.

Niall nods and let’s go of her wrist, letting her leave the room.

“So, Mr Horan, you said on the phone you invited us to speak about Jackson Tierney.” Moray says, flipping open her notebook. The Sergeant still hasn’t spoken.

“Yeah.” Niall says, nodding his head once. “I know where the bodies are.”

That gets the sergeant’s attention. “The bodies?”

“I wasn’t supposed to know. He didn’t even know. He thought it would save him from being liable if it ever got out.” 

“Then how did you find out, if you weren’t supposed to know?” Moray asks.

“I’d eavesdrop sometimes, when I was bored. He did a lot of the business in the house, and I was very rarely allowed out of it, so I got bored a lot.”

“If you were never allowed out, how are you here, talking to us now?” The sergeant asks suspiciously.

“I listened. Knew who was watching the doors when, when the guy watching the cameras took a break, which way to get out of the house unnoticed.” Niall replies. He doesn’t look at either of the police officers in front of him.

Moray nods, writing in her notepad. “So, where are the bodies, Mr Horan?”

“A junkyard, outside Salisbury. Thompsons.”

Moray write it down, and the Sergeant says, voice harsh, “Why did you leave, Mr Horan?”

Niall’s not faking it when his hands begins to shake. Jesy chooses that minute to return with mugs, milk and sugar on a little tray, and Niall takes his gratefully. “He’s, like abusive, and I got really freaked out, when I figured out I was pregnant. S’why I’m coming to you now. To protect my baby.”

Moray nods again, writing. She seems understanding, but the sergeant just seems like an arsehole.

“Abusive in what way?” The sergeant asks, insensitive.

Jesy seems legitimately worried about Niall, then, and says, “I think maybe that’s a question for a later date?”

“It’s okay.” Niall tells her, blinking up at her before looking back over at the sergeant and detective inspector. “Verbally, emotionally, physically – he did this to me –” Niall points to the scar on his cheek. It’s mostly healed, but there’s a definite white line just under his cheekbone. “He, uh, he raped me, too. Quite a few times.” He puts his hand over his belly, protectively. “S’where this came from.”

Moray’s still writing. Niall gets the sort of it’s-not-rape-if-you’re-together vibe off of the sergeant, but he doesn’t say a word.

“One other thing?” At the sergeant’s nod, Niall continues. “Don’t include Aarons, Gaiman, Smith and Mead in your investigation, they’re Tierney’s.”

Moray and the sergeant look at each other.

“How can you be sure?”

“I met Gaiman once, he came to the house when he thought you, the police I mean, were getting to close. The others were names I heard by eavesdropping.” Niall answers. He hasn’t drunk any of his tea, so he takes a sip, just to do something while the sergeant stares at him suspiciously. Niall’s getting a big old blank on him and it’s freaking him out. He can’t tell if he’s with Tierney too, or maybe someone else, or if he’s just jaded and weary from so many years on the police force.

“Anymore?” Moray asks.

“A Darlington and a Morrison. People stopped talking about them, though, so I don’t know if they’re dead or retired, or if Tierney just got tired of them. Usually that meant dead, anyway.”

The two police officers stare at each other again before Moray turns back and says, “Special Constable Laura Darlington went missing nineteen months ago. Her family and friends haven’t seen or spoken to her in that time.”

“I won’t be surprised if you find her with the rest of them. She probably wanted out.”

They thank Niall, and tell him to stay put while they investigate, before they begin to leave, teas still untouched.

“Detective Inspector Moray?” Niall calls from the door way when they’re at the bottom of the terrace steps. She comes back, and Niall thanks his dumb luck the sergeant doesn’t follow here. “Just… do me a favour? Keep an eye on Sergeant Barracks. I don’t know anything, but he seems… off. I’d stake my life on my gut instincts, they’ve kept me alive this long. I’m not saying he’s on Tierney’s side, or anyone else’s, he might just have been a police officer too long, I’m just saying… keep an eye on him.”

Moray nods once.

“And… when you get Tierney? Don’t tell him about the baby. At all. He’ll kill us.”

“Niall, do you need protection?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t want it. Just don’t.”

Moray nods once more, and then she’s gone, into the black car parked on the street before it takes off.

When he goes back into the house, Louis’s there, standing in the lounge room.

“You did so well, pet.” He says, taking Niall’s face in his hands, pressing their foreheads together. “Let’s go home.”

-*-*-

A story shows on the news the next day of a mass grave in a Salisbury junkyard. The day after that, a story shows a standoff at a Lambeth house that ended in four fatalities. No police officers were harmed, and ten people were taken into custody, including four police officers, all accused of dealings with organised crime. The following day, one of Louis’s police plants calls in to tell him that one of the fatalities has been confirmed as Jackson Tierney.

“Niall, you did it!” Louis cries, taking Niall’s face in his hands and pressing a smacking kiss to his mouth, before picking him up and spinning him about in a circle.

Niall’s so relieved and excited he goes into early labour.

-*-*-

Niall wakes to a knock on the hospital room door. He’d begged Louis not to take him, but the baby had been four weeks premature and still breech, so Louis had ignored him and taken him anyway.

Louis’s at the door, Harry and Liam trailing carefully in behind him, and Niall’s so relieved he might scream. The nurses had been making him nuts. They’re all carrying presents – flowers and teddy-bears and sweets – and Niall can’t help himself.

“You’re all bloody softies, aren’t you? Who woulda thought? London’s biggest crime organization, and its leaders are mushy, soft-hearted, sweet fuckers.”

Harry laughs and lopes over to Niall, sitting on the bed by Niall’s side, pulling Niall into a hug. “Least you’re still you.”

“How is she?” Louis asks, standing on Niall’s other side, looking into the crib the baby’s still sleeping in.

“She’s fine. Fucking took me by surprise. Thought there’d be summat wrong, breathing or such, but she popped out, healthy as a fucking horse.”

Louis looks pleased, and proud, and smiles down at her softly.

“I brought flowers.” Liam says, taking a hesitant step forward, holding out the bunch in his hands. 

“Thank you.” Niall says, taking them when they’re handed to him, before pulling him in for the hug. “C’mere you big fucking lug.”

“Honestly, Niall,” the nurse, Emma, an older lady Niall hates with a passion, says. “That swearing will have to stop, or she’ll pick it up from you in no time.”

“We’re havin’ a fucking moment, Nurse Ratched.”

Emma rolls her eyes and leaves the room again, shutting the door behind herself.

The occupants of the room burst into laughter when she’s gone, and it wakes the baby.

“Bloody screamer, she is.” Harry says. He looks fond.

“Alright, fucking everyone gerroff, she’s hungry.” Niall says, pushing Harry off the bed as Emma returns to the room.

“Everyone out, now.”

“Shut up, woman.” Niall says. “She’s my baby, this is my room, they’re my friends.”

He mouth shuts with an audible clack, and she leaves again, probably to go get the baby’s bottle.

“Can you bring her ‘ere?” Niall asks Louis.

Louis picks the baby out of the crib with practiced ease, and puts her into Niall’s waiting arms.

“Alright, alright, it’s coming, you bugger.” Niall tells her, voice soft, holding her to his chest. She calms down some, being pressed against him, but she’s still hungry, and still crying but no longer screaming so loudly.

Emma returns with a bottle and hands it to Niall, leaving when he stares at her expectantly.

“Fucking hate that bitch.” He tells the others, putting the bottle’s nipple into the baby’s mouth, sighing in relief when the crying stops and she begins to drink. “Do this, do that, you’re doing it wrong, do it this way, stop swearing. Fuck.”

Louis laughs indulgently and pulls a chair over to the bed so he can sit. “She is just trying to help, you know.”

“I pushed a human being out of my arsehole twelve hours ago, what the fuck does she expect from me?”

Liam and Harry excuse themselves from the room, claiming a tea break, but Niall knows they’re just trying to give Louis and Niall space. Niall’s glad for it.

“God, she’s lovely.” Louis says into the quiet of the room, taking the baby’s tiny hand between his thumb and forefinger. “Have you thought of a name?”

“Sorta…” Niall says, shoulders starting to hurt from holding her. “It’s a bit soppy.” Louis waits patiently. “Louise?”

“Like…”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck.” Louis mumbles, staring up at Niall in shock. “Jesus, Niall. Are you serious?”

“Yes?” Niall says, unsure of his choice now.

“Fuck, Niall, I’m honoured.”

“Really?”

Louis nods his head and stands, pressing a kiss to Niall’s forehead. “So fucking much.”

“Good, I’m glad.” Niall says, nodding his head, turning his attention back to Louise as Louis falls back into his seat. “What happened?”

Louis doesn’t even need to think about what Niall’s talking about. “The cops got lucky, raided ‘em while they were having a meeting, got them with a shite load of drugs, and guns with the serial numbers shaved off. Tierney’s dead, as are two men and one woman, didn’t catch any of their names, and the cops got a shitload from a woman claiming to be Tierney’s wife. Name’s Perrie, know her?”

Niall’s almost positive Perrie’s the girl Tierney was shagging behind his back. Poor thing, at least Niall never married him. “Yeah. Good girl, utter idiot.”

“Archer’s in the bunker, all healed up nicely, and we got a newbie, left over from Tierney’s outfit, low level drug dealer. Did you know a Zayn?”

“Olive skin, sorta pretty?” At Louis’s nod, Niall continues. “Yeah, he’s a good kid. Smart too. I’d keep him, at least for now.”

Louis nods, stroking over Louise’s dark, downy hair. “I will. I put him with Jesy, she’ll look after him.”

“She’s a good girl, you should pay her extra.” Niall replies, moving Louise into his other arm when it started to hurt.

“Pay her extra?” Louis says with a laugh, laying his cheek over Niall’s thigh, watching him and Louise together. “Why?”

“Cause she deserves it.” 

Louise finishes her milk, and Niall burps her before settling her back against his chest. He holds her in the crook of one of his arms, threading the fingers of his free hand through Louis’s hair. “Can I ask you something?” He asks Louis, running his finger over Louis’s closed eyelid.

“Yeah, pet.”

“I know the plan was always to go back to Ireland, but I think I’d like to stay, if you’re up for it?”

Louis blinks up at Niall, and smiles so wide, his eyes crinkle in the corners. It makes Niall’s heart beat so hard he thinks it’ll beat out of his chest. “I was hoping you’d say that, I kinda made Caroline buy a bassinet when you went into labour.”

“You did?” Niall asks, touching the crinkles in the corner of Louis’s eyes with his thumb. “What’s it look like?”

“She said it’s called a bedside sleeper, it sits against the side of the bed.” Louis replies. “I thought we could put you both in my room, but you can stay in yours if you want?”

“Maybe I’ll stay, just for a little while, but we’ll talk about it again soon.”

“Sounds perfect, pet.” Louis replies, nuzzling Niall’s thigh.

“You look tired.” Niall tells him, running his fingers through Louis’s hair, scratching his nails over Louis’s scalp. “Louise is passed out, put her in the crib and take a nap with me.”

Louis does as he’s asked, taking Louise out of Niall’s arms and setting her in the crib, climbing into the bed under the thin blanket and curling around Niall’s back.

Niall falls asleep with his hand in the crib beside the bed, his finger grasped in Louise’s tiny hand, Louis wrapped around his back.

He feels safe, properly safe, for the first time in years.


End file.
